


The Seidr's Daughter

by Valkyrjan



Series: Norse Transformers Tales [3]
Category: Norse Religion & Lore, Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Norse Religion & Lore, Gen, Optimus in Wolf form, Rebellion, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Refugees, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Slavery, TF/Norse Au, TF5, Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Trust, Werewolf Curse, contains several languages, tf5 spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-23 00:21:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11391456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valkyrjan/pseuds/Valkyrjan
Summary: Optimus Prime wakes up stuck inside a new form and burn-marked on right arm, unaware that he has a dangerous curse inside. A slave child discovers a lie and escapes for her freedom. Their paths collide together by sheer coincidence. When they become hunted refugees, the Prime and the child are forced to rely on each other for enermies are everywhere and none can be trusted. As their bond grows intensively, they will witness the return of a long-forgotton myth that will lead to the Fimbulr winter.Contains TF5 spoilers. Updates will be irregular but will have double chapters





	1. Am I A Wolf?

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea for quite some long time before I saw TF5 for the first time. I've seen the movie 5 times in the cinema, which is enough to start writing this story. It's POV focused through Optimus Prime and my OC Saga. Updates will be irregular but each update will have double chapters, which is my plan to keep it up.

* * *

_Where am I?_

I had no memory what happened to me. I remembered nothing. I can’t reflect one single memory from my CPU.

It was dark in pitch-darkness when I slowly forced my optics into online. A wide circle-shaped ruin of a water well laid ahead of me where rays of sunlight shone from a gaping up above. Water glimmered from its hole. Tiny birds tweeted.

_Am I inside a cave,_ I wondered, lost in confusion. The ground was rocky. _Something is wrong here._

Carefully, I attempted to rise when I detected strange movements from my body. My legs weren’t the same, neither were my arms or my servos. I gazed down for an inspection. What I saw triggered a horror. My servos weren’t the same. They were canine paws.

_What has happened to me?!_

“Groouf!” a single bark came out from me, echoing from wall to other inside the cave. “Grooagh, groof!”

_I_ _… I cannot speak,_ I gasped, panting like a dog. My voice. It was gone. “Whoof…” I made a whine that sounded like a ‘no’.

I made another attempt, this time trying to get up on my legs. I stood up, balancing as best as I could, but my legs weren’t longer suitable to stand on two. My legs had become hind legs and my pedes were back paws. I sensed something odd behind me. Something wiggling.

_Oh no_ _… Don_ _’t say I have a tail too?_

I moved my helmet around to see behind me. Yes, I was right. I got a tail. Its silvery gray features glimmered like metallic furs. My whole neck was covered in blue fur that traced all over my spinal stunts. My hind legs had blue fur attached on behind of the lower legs. More blue furs sheltered over my thighs. My fur was not organic. It was metallic with thin threads that was as soft as thick coated fur. My blue and red flamed colors remained intact though, which I was relieved for it. Yet, my Knight armor had changed completely in order to suit for my new shape. My chest was heavily muscular, which was a result of the new suiting.

Yet, I realized things had gotten in worst ways I won’t imagined. I walked toward the ruined well, looking on the water.

_No! My face plates!_

To my horror, my whole face was no longer my own. It was a wolf’s head now. Some features were missing, some were almost the same. My helm crest remained the same as it trailed from forehead to the back of my helm. My antennas were wolf ears that had gray fur inside them. Blue spiky, metallic fur stuck out from both sides of my wolf head, tracing from my audio receptors to below the underjaw. My optics had become wolf optics, yet they remained the same bright blue.

Everything turned up-side down in horrific realization.

My whole body was stuck in a shape of a wolf.

_Am I a wolf? No, I cannot be a wolf,_ I thought. My wolf optics inspected more on my new, changed body. _No, I must transform._

“Groouf,” I growled in frustration when I tried to transform.

Nothing happened. I was literally stuck. It was as if my T-cog was deactivated. I made a second attempt, then a third and a fourth. It was all in vain. Somehow, my ability had simply shut down without warning.

Also, I discovered that my sword and shield were missing. Although, I understood what happened with my weapons. They were not laying on the ground. They were combined inside my wolf form. My tail was the sword while my shield was another part of my broad, muscular chest area.

Then I made a desperate attempt to seek all my memories inside my CPU. I shut my optics hard, trying so hard in my search for the tiniest memory I must have stored.

_Golden optics._

_“Optimus Prime…” a female voice said. Her voice sounded deep in mystic but sharp and ice-cold. “You are so blind.”_

_“Who are you?” I growled. I was not myself._

_I was Nemesis Prime._

_“I'm the one who has foreseen this moment coming true,” she continued. The mystic within her voice sent a wave of chills that trailed through my spinal column. “I have arrived to clear your gaze from the clouds of blindness."_

“Groouf?” I whined slightly in misunderstanding. As I tried to remember more, more thoughts gathered inside my processor while I tried to think on the words. _Clouds of blindness?_

_The voice belonged to a cloaked female whose head carried an outstanding crown. As my purple optics narrowed, I realized what I was encountering. It was a Cybertronian femme. She was slightly shorter than me. Her cloak covered her entirely, her helmet hidden under a hood and her crown shone like pure moonlight. Her face hid behind eight pearl straps._

_I was completely drenched in sea water. She was not wet for the slightest at all._

_Behind her stood her weapon; a long staff that had a glowing orb on its top in blue flames and electricity. It sparked electric power, which created a shield around us. Electric snakes swirled around it in a spiral dance, hissing and sparking. A wave washed over the edge. But instead taking us with it, the shield protected us from the powerful wave that swept above. It had no power dragging the shield._

_Then drums were heard. The shield got constantly beaten by fists, slams from a hammer and kicks as the young Autobot scout and the male human tried to get a way inside. It was all in vain for the shield was unbreakable as well. No wave could move it from its place. None could get inside with or without force._

I moved my head up, looking for clues. I turned my gaze on the spot where I laid a moment ago and walked back there with a bent neck. It was then I noticed a huge difference. My olfactory sensor was more sensitive than before. I sniffed thousands of scents at once, so many that I got dizzy in an instant nano-klik. One breath sucked in through my snout, collecting all the new information and then I breathed it out. Dust blew on all directions.

_Odd. I can find only my own scent here,_ I thought, puzzled. It was quite funny thinking that I recognized my own scent. I looked for any signs that can lead to more clues. I found no track marks except my paw tracks. But just then, I detected a new smell. _Wait_ _… That smell. It smells like molten steel._

I looked after its source. It came from my right foreleg. A large area was marked in damaged steel that got cooled after being melted. It was not an ordinary injury for its size was in a shape of a five-fingered hand that laid between my paw and elbow gear. Fortunately, my blue and red flamed colored Knight foreleg armor remained the same, except it had gotten very dusty in pitch-black dust and slightly damaged with several cracks. But there was a wide, black crack that sat in the middle of the damage. It looked like a deep wound where I could see the inner arm structure.

_How did that happen?_

I had so many questions when I suddenly saw another brief memory.

_I pulled my sword over my spinal stunts, readying for another slash down. I roared out as I charged straight at her, my sword in my grasp. But I foolishly underestimated her. She was quick to dodge, faster than I could response. My sword hit the wet platform. I spun around, looking after my target. She stood on a pretty short, yet safe distance between us. She stood silently when she raised her left servo, making a taunting movement._

_“Show me your strength and speed,” she sounded like she was taunting me. “If you can catch me…”_

_I roared out as I charged at her again. I swung my sword from above. But when my sword reached half-way, that was then the femme dodged again, then launching on me from left side in sudden speed. Her right servo grabbed the under part of my right forearm._

_On that moment, I felt the worst pain I'd yet faced so far. The pain burned through me in an extreme heat. The femme's servo glowed in white markings that appeared to be tattoos. Her face glowed in white markings as well. Her golden optics stared through my own purple optics like a hawk._

_My whole arm burned so much that I thought I was going to lose it as I felt the heat melting through my forearm. White smoke raised between her digits._

_It lasted only a klik but it felt like it lasted an eternity when the femme let my arm go. The injury glowed in pure white light as cracks spread over my arm, worsening my injury even worse. The pain didn_ _’t only burn. It created an intense pain that experienced like I got bitten by a monster and its intoxicating venom poisoned through all Energon vein cables._

_The white light shaped into tattoos that covered my servo, digits and elbow before spreading over to my upper body and opposite arm._

I got interrupted by a noise. Rumbling rocks. A cave collapse occurred. At first, I thought it was happening inside here so I prepared myself for falling rocks. Fortunately, it proved coming from outside. It suddenly gave me an idea.

_Hold on a klik. There has to be a tunnel nearby,_ I thought. _The collapse is coming from there._

It was then I discovered something else that had changed me. Just like my olfactory sensor, my audio receptors were very sensitive. I could hear everything from low frequencies to high-pitch frequencies. I could hear sounds from long distances. I relied my wolf ear audio receptors almost instantly.

There I found it. A tunnel was closed by the collapse. I hesitated not as I began digging my way out. Yet, I was cautious. Any wrong movement and I can cause another collapse. It took a long time before I dug a hole wide and large enough for me to squeeze through.

_Just as I thought! There is a tunnel here,_ I thought more relieved than excited. _Primus, it_ _’s really narrow. I can barely get through it._

I crawled through the narrow tunnel. It was difficult for my wolf body was not slender like a snake. I was larger and broader than the tunnel. I feared for another collapse for the rocky cave roof threatened with some tiny rocks cracking and falling down. Dust were everywhere, which caused me to sneeze unexpectedly.

Then I saw it. I saw a tiny light ahead of me. I was getting closer. I could smell fresh air. The way out wasn’t easy. I had to dig my way out. As I dug faster and faster, I grew more desperate to get free. After a long struggle, yet it lasted only a short moment, I was finally free as I broke myself out from the rocky tunnel. I was met by the warm, bright sunlight when I carefully crawled out, standing up on all four legs and shook my body from dust and tiny rocks.

But as I gazed around, I faced a whole different view. I saw a strange world where forests dominated the whole landscape between several mountains. I discovered that I stood on a steep mountain slope where several small rivulets of melted snow flowed down from the snowy peak.

I turned my optics up. I saw the sun. No, it was not the sun. There were two suns. The clear sky had a couple of twin suns that had a distance between them, both in the same size.

“Grooouf,” I growled, baffled over the new world and the twin suns. Suddenly another memory appeared.

_I screamed in agony as I grabbed my injured, glowing arm with my free servo. I fell down on my knees, curling like a ball whereas I fought back against the infectious pain. It burned everywhere; my chest plates, shoulders, arms, servos and my face plates. My sword laid next to me after I dropped it. I groaned and creaked when I heard her voice atop on me._

_“Pathetic_ _… You may be the last Prime, Optimus Prime,_ _” she said sharply, almost like she was heavily disappointed on me._ _“But you have no power against it. You are just another empty one_ _…”_

_On that moment, as I heard my real name, I heard suddenly the voice I recognized so dearly._

_Cade._

_“Prime! Leave him alone, you bitch!" he shouted, swearing at her. “Let him go!"_

_“Cade Yeager,” she replied his name, which caused a silence in tension. “Do you really think you can save him? You’re so wrong…”_

_I turned my gaze, looking after him._

_I was free._

_I didn_ _’t hear Quintessa_ _’s voice inside my processor longer. She had lost her control over me._

_My optics had returned to my light blue ones when I felt suddenly a force grasping around my neck gear. It felt like a servo that tried to suffocate me. I was pulled up in the air. My pedes wiggled in the air while I struggled back. My sword and shield were rising in the air too, swinging in a circle before they attached behind my spinal stunts._

_The femme stood in front of me. She held her staff in one servo. The voltage snakes swarmed her entire arm. Her other servo glowed in pure white light with the same tattoos._

_“Optimus Prime, in response of your blinded actions,” she spoke. “The consequences shall be your punishment. You shall suffer by your burn-marked curse.”_

_The pain inside my injured arm worsened into worse. My arm broke, followed by my servo. The inner arm structure suffered in the worst bone fracture. I screamed. No, my scream was not an ordinary agonizing scream. It was a distressed wolf_ _’s howl._

_“As a result, Optimus Prime…” her voice seemed trailing away for a klik before it returned with an outraging call. “You shall be banished from Earth for an eternity! **Neräa ashûll, shiáulla… Eówyena!** ”_

_I faced the worst and most brutal transformation I’d ever experienced in my entire life. Everywhere inside me broke in pieces. My arms, legs, servos, pedes. They all twisted and twitched insanely, breaking everything. Then my body changed drastically. My whole body did more else than just breaking limbs, spinal stunts, chest plates and my face plates. It started to convert._

_The whole transformation lasted for a whole klik. By the sparkbeat it stopped, I was not myself anymore. I had become something else. I closed my optics. The last thing I remembered was the collision against the wet and hard platform, and how I tried to catch a small glimpse on Cade. My gaze faded gradually into the pitch darkness. I heard his cry after my name._

“Whoouf…” I whined slightly, flopping my wolf ears down like an ashamed dog. I stared a downcast look on the rocks below me. I started questioning myself for everything. _What have I done?_

But then I thought on the femme dressed in dark cloak. Who is she? Where did she come from?

_Whoever she is,_ I pulled up a snarl as the inner rage boiled inside me, making me to claw the rocks. _She’ll pay for what she has done with me._

I laid my gaze on the new landscape, which gave me more questions than I carried enough. Where was I really? Was I still on Earth?

I sensed the uncertain feeling. If I was not on Earth anymore, does that mean I was in another world? If that was true… then I was far from home, far from my Autobots and far from the humans.

_Too far away…_

I made another attempt to transform. Still nothing occurred. I bent my head down for a sparkbeat, yelping low as if it was forbidden for me to speak loud, only whispering was allowed. However, no matter how discouraged it was, I felt suddenly my determination waking inside me. _I had to continue on,_ I understood immediately what I had to do. _I must find a way to break myself free from this wolf shape and find the femme responsible for all of this._

I snarled up, barring my fangs as I threw my head up and howled so loud that the whole landscape would have heard me. I scared a flock of birds that fled instinctually. The birds were alien with manta ray wings, three long feathery tails and sparrow-like heads.

As it happened, I made my decision. _I will find a way to get myself back._

My journey had only just begun.


	2. A Child Inside The Water Well

The forest was completely unfamiliar but still similar simultaneously. The trees stood tall with the thickest trunks and whitest tree barks I’d ever seen. The canopy blocked the sunlight with such density that it was more night than day.

The tree branches hung heavily as long, slender and green vines hung between the tall trees like spider webs, except there were no giant spiders. It was surprisingly colorful despite the slow incoming evening darkness. Many trees had lost their leaves, standing naked. The whole ground was full with leaves. It indicated that the season was autumn. I could be wrong for certain since I knew nothing about this alien world.

There were many stones scattered around, disguised in moss. However, I discovered quickly that the stones were not rocks. The stones were crystals that glimmered weakly in warm colors.

An old human phrase repeated inside my processor.

_Be careful when you walk inside the troll forest. There are trolls inside there._

Trolls. Heh, that was ridiculous. Yet, the word ‘troll forest’ seemed suitable for this dense and dark forest.

I stayed focused the whole time while I wandered lost inside the unknown forest. I’d lost the count of time since I traveled down to the bottom of the valley and entered the forest where I could be lost for an eternity inside there. Yet, I knew how long time I spent time here. I had been wandering restlessly for two solar cycles without a break.

I was distracted by my new sensors. My olfactory sensor picked up thousands of scents in every intake I inhaled through my wolf snout. It made me dizzy so it created a processor ache. My olfactory sensor was able to separate a scent from another, though I still had much to learn. My improved audio receptors acted like actual canine ears. I moved them unnoticedly without I paid attention over their independent movements.

My new wolf shape was tricky. Not only I had to learn about the basics as a wolf but also how much I had to learn relying on my new sensors. I didn’t want to behave like a wolf. Still, it didn’t help much for, like I said, I must learn everything now when I was a wolf.

“Gruuf…” I made a growling mutter that sounded like a deep ‘hmm’. I held my nose down on the soft, mossy and leaf-covered ground, sniffing in more information.

**_Ruuuuuk, ruuuuuk!_ **

Suddenly cawing cries startled me up. I tossed up my gaze up, looking after the source of the cries. They sounded like crow calls. _It can be any kind of bird that has those cries,_ I thought, ignoring the cawing calls that silenced as quickly as it first came.

But when the silence overwhelmed the forest, I fell into my thoughts. I grew more desperate now. I hadn’t found anything that can lead me to clues. I found absolutely nothing. It gave me a deliberate sense of discouragement.

_How can I ever be myself again?_

It darkened faster than I thought. As darkness fell, the forest became more threatening. Unknown threats lurked everywhere, waiting for their chances for an ambush. Wary, I checked everywhere before I moved on. Then I found a pathway. It was a slim one that was commonly used by the alien creatures that lived inside the forest. I decided to walk on the pathway, following its way.

The pathway led me to more open space where the tree canopy had open holes so I can see on the night heaven. The last sunlight vanished quickly and the night darkness became the dominated ruler for the heaven. It took a long time until I found an open meadow where more crystals laid scattered over the field.

Now when it was dark, the crystals shined in bright light. Swarms of glowing bugs buzzed in the high grass in weak yellowish green light. Farther away, I saw a herd of moose-like horse creatures whose horns were purely made in crystals. The creatures had thick armor of narrow, smoothly shaped crystals sitting on their chests and hips.

I felt a sense of adaption. I’d seen the creatures before. They shared a common feature along with other alien mammals. All creatures bore crystals on their bodies, both herbivore and predators. It was only flying bird creatures that had no crystals on. On other hand, they did have dots of bioluminescence, probably another adaption for the night.

Just then, as I arrived there, a rising moon appeared in the sky west. Yes, unlike Earth where the sun rises in the east, the twin suns traveled to the east, and what I presumed, they will rise on the west instead. I had seen the moon before. Two night cycles ago, it was only a half moon. I assumed that the orbiting moon had a fast rate of moon shapes, which it was faster than Earth’s own moon.

The moon was at its fullest stage. It was larger than the moon orbiting around Earth. The moon’s large size told me about its close range between itself and this planet. I cast my wolf optics on the full moon. As its pure white moonlight shone, the rays reflected on my armor and fur, making me shimmer like silver.

However, on the same moment, I felt a brutal pain inside me. My whole body broke, twisting and twitching.

I howled aguishly as I fell down on the ground, rolling on my furry spinal stunts whereas I experienced the brutal transformation that tore me insanely apart. I shut my optics tightly as a reaction. I didn’t want to see it.

But it didn’t mean I _felt_ how my entire body changed.

My paws and legs converted into my arms, servos, pedes and bipedal legs. My tail shrunk down in size, converting into my sword. My chest relieved from the pressure as my shield got departed from my chest. My weapons landed a short distance from me.

But the most brutal and drastic change occurred on my helmet. My wolf snout got pushed inward, all fangs forced inside. My wolf ear audio receptors converted back to my original antennas. All the fur vanished totally.

The transformation was short despite its brutality. My optical system boosted online. I flickered my optics several times until I saw it clear in front of me. I laid curled. The first thing I saw were my own servos.

“My servos…” I said. Then I placed my left servo, feeling my throat gear where the voice box was. “I can speak again.”

I checked everywhere on every inch of my whole body. That was then I saw that my fibulas still had the same blue fur that sat behind them, trailing from knee joint gear down to the ankle gear. Otherwise, I looked the same with my Knight armor. But as I paid a closer look on me, I saw a small feature. My wrists had four, tiny canine claws on each. They were barely visible for the naked eye.

Then my gaze took a look on the injury on my right arm. It looked worse than I thought. The deep hole on the middle of my wound was completely black. I poked my index digit on it. I felt a burning ache, which made me to hiss. It burned through my whole damaged arm. It felt worse when touched. But moving it was not affecting me much. Yet, it told me that I had to be careful and tender with it.

“Hmm, I have to repair it soon,” I told myself. “Either I will do it on my own or with help from some engineer. If I can find someone who I can trust…”

Just then, I sensed a change in the air. Once there was the air of tranquility. Now there was a sense of worry. It affected the crystal elk-horses. They grew nervous as if they understood something was nearby. I discovered that my sensors were the same as they were when I was in my wolf shape. I was surprised thinking on it.

As it happened, I spotted something inside the forest ahead of me. A small light from a flaming torch. The first thought I had was a simple one. “A traveler,” I said, my optics following after it. Though, a part of me told me to hide in the shadows.

I decided to hurry after the disappearing flame that faded faster than I could walk. I sighed slightly in silence, considering that I was too slow. Yet, I refused transforming. I had enough of my wolf form.

I arrived inside the forest where I found a gravel road. It was broad. My optical system activated in night vision. I knelt down on my knee for a closer inspection on the road. I found many tracks from hooves, wagon wheels, paws and feet.

“It seems like this road is pretty commonly used,” I spoke for myself, studying the tracks. “That means people can be nearby.”

I turned my gaze up and looked for more tracks when I spotted the flaming torch again. It was nothing else but a very tiny spot of fading light. I decided to follow after it, rising up on my pedes. But I took only ten steps before a shriek was heard from a long distance, which I estimated less than two miles away. Even now when I was in my robot form, my audio receptors functioned better and sharper than before.

More noises came, laughing and snickering ones. A horse’s panicking neigh was heard. It triggered me to react instinctually.

The traveler was in grave danger.

I recognized the laughing giggles. They belonged to one predator: a hyena-like alien that hunted in packs, behaving like wolves but had some lizard features.

I avoided transforming again. Instead, I ran as fast as I can. However, I didn’t shout out. The panicking neighs vanished quickly along with the laughing noises. I feared directly that the traveler’s riding companion was dead, killed by the predators. I feared for the traveler’s fate as well.

 _No, I can’t be too late,_ I thought, running on.

I continued running. It might had taken more or less time until I found the torch. It was a lantern actually. It laid on the dusty ground, its flame burning weakly. I picked it up. It remained intact to my surprise. I found fresh track marks on the ground. Hooves here and paws there, galloping in full speed forward before me. But there were no signs of blood spills.

**_Glunk-glunk…_ **

Suddenly I detected a sound. It sounded like clanging chains that got shaken in a sluggish, beating rate. It sounded like frail drums. It was not far from me.

**_Glunk-glunk, glunk-glunk…_ **

I hurried as I listened after the source, searching intensely, yet silently since the alien predators can be nearby if I was not watchful enough. I then heard water splashing. It sounded like it came inside a water well. Thirty kliks clicked past when I finally found the water well. It stood on a meeting spot where travelers can stay and let their riding mounts rest and drink water.

**_Glunk-glunk, glunk-glunk…_ **

The chain clanged, caused by movements inside the water well. Splashing water came from there as well. Something or _someone_ was stuck in the bottom. I reacted without hesitation. I rushed to the water well, kneeling down and cast a look to the bottom. I saw something down there that held tight in the chain.

I realized what it was. It was a child.

“Hang on there, little one!” I exclaimed as I grabbed the chain, pulling the child up that held almost lifelessly on the chain.

I saw how the child’s head bend backward, its eyes barely open. Then a sign of life appeared as it stretched up its slim, long left arm. A word uttered from its innocent half oval, half round shaped face. I grasped its arm with both index and thumb digits of my right servo, tenderly not daring to break any frail bone.

I laid the child in my left servo, looking for signs of life.

“A girl,” I said after inspecting her gender with a hasty scan. “You’re so frozen.”

I was right. She was cold as ice, completely drenched in fresh water. She breathed barely. How long had she been stuck inside the water well? I must warm her up, otherwise she will suffer by severe hypothermia and lose her life.

“Hang on, little one,” I prayed for the child’s life. “Stay alive. I will make fire and warm you up.”

My optics fixed on the child’s eyes who tried to glance on me, barely though. She tried to utter some words that were inaudible. I pressed her close into my chest while I looked after a place where we can hide and I can make a fire. My night vision caught something. But that was then I suddenly heard hooves approaching toward us.

I tried to hide but I failed doing it gravely before I encountered a traveling person, which sat on a saddled elk’s spine. The elk reared up on its hind legs, bugling its scared call. The person lost his or her grip on both the elk’s bridle and saddle, falling backward and landed with a hard thud on the ground.

The elk fled immediately, bugling out its fear. As I neared closer into the person, I met its eyes. It was then I suddenly realized it was not a human. It was an elf. The elf, which was a male, had slim, pointy ears pointed upward, his skin pale with purple markings on his wide face. His hair was white like snow. His eyes glowed like moonlight itself; there were no pupils nor irises on his eyes. He wore gracefully clothes in red and green fabrics.

“I apologize for startling you,” I apologized to the elf, which it was quite foolish.

No word came out from the ear-pointed elf. But then he stammered in utter fright: “ **Cybér… Cybértronia! Nieánu, nieánu! Asilûola…** ”

He fainted in a blink of an eye. As horrified I was so was I stunned as well. The language was unrecognizable, so foreign and so mysterious that the words sounded like they belonged to a song. My spark pulsed intensively when I felt a tiny hand touching on my chest plate. The child was moving. I fixed my focus on her, soon forgetting the fainted elf.

Hurrying with fastest legs, I left the road behind me, running past the tall trees while I searched after a hiding spot where I can make some fire. It was pitch-dark. Though, the glowing crystals became my guide as their warm lights created pathways. Soon the trees began shining too. Some trees contained veins of crystals that had grown inside their trunks.

I stopped for one klik to take a check on the frozen child. She started to fade away.

 _No, please don’t die, little one,_ I begged mentally for the child. _We are almost there. Try to stay alive for one more moment._

Suddenly, I found it. There was a big, gaping hole before me. It was a sinkhole, which was an entrance of an underground cave. I climbed down, using my only free servo and landed on the rocky bottom. It caused a small cry from the child, a pained whine. I didn’t hear it at first. It was only when I was inside the cave that I heard her cry. I put her down on a smooth rock, watching her quickly.

“It’s okay, little one,” I assured her, gently patting her cheek with the tip of my left index digit. “You are safe now. None shall harm you.”

She gasped for air with fast breaths. She blinked her eyes several times as if she got dust in her eyes, forcing herself to rub them with her hands. The child’s body shuddered by the cold. I then went outside again, climbing up from the sinkhole and chose branches that had fallen from the trees. I picked as many as I can carry before returning back inside the sinkhole’s cave. I placed the fireplace just outside the cave, laying the branches into a pile. I used my sword and a flint that I scraped on the blade’s edge, igniting some sparks of flames.

Fire consumed the pile instantly within a klik. I moved my helmet over my shoulder, fixing my optics on the child who kept shuddering and hurried to her where I picked her up gently in my servos, then returning to the fireplace. I laid her pretty close into the fire, yet on a safe distance so the flames won’t hurt her.

It was now I took a proper inspection on her.

She wore a handmade shawl that oversized her slim upper body, arms and waist. It was blood-red and black with two outstanding white wave patterns. It was held by a circle-shaped, golden buckle with a needle-like pin. She wore brown trousers with leg bandages wrapped around half way of her fibulas and black boots. Under her shawl she wore a purple tunic, which proved to be oversized for it was suitable for a full-grown man, not a small and thin child. A black belt sat wrapped around her waist.

She had short, messy, golden-brown hair that gave her more a boyish appearance. It reached only down to her neck. Both of her ears were pierced with three each golden rings.

“What is your name, child?” I asked her. Our gazes met. She had sea-blue eyes. She was completely exhausted.

She didn’t answer right away. She looked vulnerable.

“ **Éik…** ” a word slipped out from her. She struggled speaking. “ **Éik… Éik heitir…** ”

Those words were foreign for my audio receptors. I didn’t understand a word. Her voice was heavily exhausted. Despite that her body was slowly regaining warmth, she was so exhausted that she was close to fall in sleep, which she did. She fell asleep in my servo.

The full moon shone upon on as it had reached its peak of the heaven. For a long moment I watched over her, observing her.

“Are you a human?” I whispered my question, not knowing if she did hear me or not. She looked so much like a human that I presumed she was a human child without a second thought.

Time felt slower while I stayed awake, watching over the child and confirmed that she remained warm and safe. I listened on her silent breathing.

Hours passed peacefully under the pure moonlight. The fireplace died eventually, though I chose not fueling more fire for the child got completely warm.

But when the moonlight faded as the approaching dawn sent the earliest rays of sunlight, everything went catastrophic. Without warning, my body faced the same brutal pain and I went through the transformation against my own will. Fortunately, I managed to get away from the child because I didn’t want her to get harmed by me.

By the time as the first sunlight grew stronger, my forced transformation ended as short as it started quickly. Yet, the agony I experienced lasted longer than I’d appreciated. I panted deeply like a dog while lying on the ground, cooling down my intakes. After a long moment, I struggled rising up on my paws, shaking my dusty body.

“Grooof,” I growled. I became frustrated. _Not again… Now I cannot speak while I’m a wolf._

However, despite my frustration, I thought suddenly on the child. She was still sleeping. I walked cautiously toward her, sneaking like a cat. Then I opened my jaws, gripping her inside my fangs tenderly, lifting her up and hid inside the cave. I curled into a ball. The child was hidden inside my fur, shielded.

But before I fell into recharge, which my body urged, many thoughts exploded inside my processor. It didn’t ease my recharge easily.


End file.
